Backlight Status Checking. (Howto?)

The only entry in devices.xml that references the light button is the d2bravo. You should be able to capture the Ui.KEY_LIGHT key presses on that device by pressing the power button (at least in the simulator).

There isn't currently any way to tell if the light is on or not from an app, but if you want the light on or off, you can change that via the method in the Attention module.

Yes, I'm currently using the attention module to control the bl, just that without knowing if the light is currently on/off or key pressed, there are cases which I can't work around as well as how to honor the system wide existing settings from the user. (8s / 15s etc timeouts)

My current code more or less works, but I will inadvertently turn off the backlight if it's currently (per my code's method)

(I didn't see refs to device.xml on the light button onky referencing Epix. That just means I didn't know what I was searching and such. My bad)

Thanks

Nike.. You won't be seeing info on the backlight/power button in a very long time.....

Not only does that button already have a job dealing with the back light, but it is also the way do do a soft or hard reset on the devices. That button will be blocked in CIQ for a very long time..

The whole D2 release (IMHO) seems to be a bit messed up, when it comes to CIQ and basic stuff... The fact that the simulator has a key for the light means little in this case.....

Nike.. You won't be seeing info on the backlight/power button in a very long time.....

Not only does that button already have a job dealing with the back light, but it is also the way do do a soft or hard reset on the devices. That button will be blocked in CIQ for a very long time..

The whole D2 release (IMHO) seems to be a bit messed up, when it comes to CIQ and basic stuff... The fact that the simulator has a key for the light means little in this case.....

I'm OK w/ it being blocked actually. Not a problem (for me)
But I would like to determine if the light is on or off only. as an indicator so that I can honor the settings.

anyways... I'll make lemonade if that's what I have.

An example while the backlight control from an app could be bad thing:

On the VA, when the device alarm goes off, you get an "alarm screen" and the backlight comes on. You then have 1 minutes to press the screen to clear it. The backlight goes off if you act during that minute.

But, if you let the 1 minute expire, the backlight stays on, but the screen goes back to your watchface/etc.

What this means is the backlight keeps draining the battery. The first time I saw this, it was bright enough that I didn't notice the backlight was on, and after about 30 minutes, there was a very noticeable drain on the battery. I'm sure this was designed to remind people that the alarm had gone off and not cleared, but It's not that easy to see unless you are in a place where the backlight can be seen.

I'm going to file a request to see if we can detect the back light state and make that available through the API. I'll also create a request to add the ability to get the back light settings (mode, timeout).

Brandon - is there a request to make the device alarm status available in Connect IQ? That seems like a basic function for any watchface on a device with alarms... Having an icon for the backlight on a watchface would also be nice, in the situation I described when an alarm goes off on the VA.

Brandon - is there a request to make the device alarm status available in Connect IQ? That seems like a basic function for any watchface on a device with alarms... Having an icon for the backlight on a watchface would also be nice, in the situation I described when an alarm goes off on the VA.

thanks Brandon for filing the request. Whether we get it or not eventually is diff matter.
As for the behaviour on the VA - I think it's. Bug. If anything the alry should sound again an the BL should just turn off - honoring the system wide preference.

That's my view anyways.

I agree that the VVA thing sounds like a bug, but that's a firmware issue. I'll try to reproduce it and get it reported to the Vivoactive team. The Attention module will respect the system settings for the backlight timeout, so I think we're good from a Connect IQ perspective.

I don't know whether there's a request for alarm status via the Connect IQ API, but I'll take a look at create a request if one doesn't already exist.

I talked to the Vivoactive guys about the alarm/backlight issue, and that's a known bug. There's a fix for it that should have actually been included with 2.90, but it wasn't brought in for some reason (probably just missed by mistake), so it will be included in the next release. The next release should be 3.00, and I believe it's on its way soon, but don't quote me on that.